'Tell me everything you know!' I say, almost commanding him as if I were his master. But I wasn't, I was his friend.

He drops the chopping knife, alarmed but breathes in and continues to speak. And he starts to tell me exactly everything he knew as the pot of food we were preparing slowly simmered in the background, the sound of boiling and bubbling soothing the otherwise tense atmosphere.

'I knew her because she was a friend of the Helston's. She was very close to one of them, I think it was sir's mother,' he was referring to Claude 'I didn't really know she was dead until you had told me just now. I'm actually quite surprised, she was very powerful for a demon of her status.'

'Status? What is that supposed to mean?' I'm confused.

'Well, like humans, we demons too operate in a sort of hierarchy system. You know, higher class, middle class and lower class and all that? We have our own sort of ranking. Now I don't want to be too precise, we've stopped doing that whole status thing now. It's a thing of the past. It seemed primitive to measure status by blood and not power. With the exception of the Helston's which in this case have both.'

'Both what?'

He exhales, leaning against the counter 'Their family is very well known, and they are both physically and status-wise powerful. Power beyond comprehension.'

'So what was my mother's status?'

'She was what the humans would say middle class, not in terms of wealth of course, we aren't human after all. But she was born into an average demon family. But her abilities... Her power was extraordinary...'

I think for a minute, about all this, about all the new information, and about my mother. Was she really that powerful? I don't even know that meant anything up until now. Then another thought occurred to me: am I powerful? Could I ever live up to her name, which supposedly everyone already knew even if I didn't? Did the Helstons have any reason to keep all this from me?

'Should I carry on?' Virgil asked and I looked back at him. He could tell that I was taking a moment to process everything 'Should I move on to the time I first met her? Or the time Joselyn Helston did?'

'Both.' I simply said.

'Well, I met her once with Madam Joselyn. You hadn't been born yet, I'm sure. I'd have remembered you if you had been. In fact, I don't think she'd even met your father yet. They were best friends, the two of them. Joselyn and Renée. They loved each other deeply.'

'So I've heard.'

'And as most love stories go, there are always those people that are against it. But I'd say I'm over exaggerating it a bit by calling it a 'love story', they was love, but they were only just good friends...' He looked at me for a second and then said with a sort of gulp 'Who am I kidding, they really did love each other. Romantically.'

I'm shocked 'They did? They were in love with each other?'

'Well, there's no other way to put it. They were lovers. Sweethearts. Whatever words you would use nowadays.'

There was a slight blush on my face, I didn't know why. I'm not so sure how to respond to this new news. 'Does Claude know about this?'

'I'm sure he does. His mother would have told him.'

'I don't think she'd be telling him this, to be honest.' I say to him.

'You're right. Maybe not.' He admitted.

I continued to ask him questions 'So then they loved each other. But they got married to different people after, so how do you explain that.'

'Obviously, I don't know about their personal life in depth but I assumed they must have moved on, found new people.'

'But they were still so close. When my parents were still alive, we'd always visit Claude's house or they'd always come to our house.' I've known the Helstons ever since I can remember, ever since I was born, in fact, and it was like I'd seen at least one of them every day of my life. 

Virgil proceeded, checking on the food first 'Now, when I first met Renée, she was still young, in her late teens perhaps--'

I interrupted him 'I'm sorry, I'm interested, I really am. But I actually want to know something else about her. Much later in her life. About how she died.'

He paused for a moment. He thought. Then he continued 'I really don't know about that. I'm sorry, Raven.'

I sighed 'It's fine. At least I learnt something new about her.' He places a hand on my shoulder, still giving me this look as if he really wants to help despite him not knowing anything else apart from what isn't really necessary at the moment. I get up, lifting the lid of the almost cooked food and stirred it thoroughly, thinking everything through again. 

Virgil returns to my side and then adds 'I might not know anything about her death but Dante might. He knows things that even I don't know.' 

'Thanks. I'll ask him when I see him next.' I told him, starting to pour the food into a ceramic bowl he had retrieved. It's been awhile since I've had a proper home cooked meal like this that wasn't just take away or stuff I bought from outside. While Virgil sets the table (because he wanted it to be proper) I go upstairs to call Claude down.

'I can smell it from here,' he smiled as I linked arms with him and pulled him down the stairs excitedly 'But that could just be my highly developed sense of smell.' He chuckled at his own joke. We sit at the table and I insist Virgil sit with us even if he starts protesting and saying how 'it wasn't his place.' I tell him that's bullshit and he sort of blushes and takes the space two seats away from Claude; he isn't used to hearing swears. 'Sit next to me,' Claude tells him but he shakes his head and politely declines.

'It's better if you have your space, sir,' he informed him. Claude shrugged and started to eat.

'This is really good,' his face lit up and as he swallowed a spoonful 'I can't remember the last time I had a meal this nice cooked for me.'

'You're welcome,' I said in a dismissive manner 'Virgil helped.'

'I helped!' Virgil repeated gleefully.

Claude sighed wistfully, taking another bite. 'This is really good.' He repeated.

(A/N I'm trying to update frequently now just so those two or three people that actually care about this crappy story can have their share of crap for the day. Thank you all for reading this far even if I had doubts myself if I should continue. Yeah Claude and Raven's mums were in love. About time I told y'all. See you next chapter!!)